Bill validators of many types have been used for vending machines, dispensers, ticket vending machines or money exchangers to discriminate authenticity of bills inserted therein. A typical bill validator includes a conveyer for transporting a bill inserted from an inlet to an outlet along a passageway formed in the validator; sensors positioned in vicinity of the passageway for detecting magnetic or optical features of the bill during transportation of the bill; a discriminating circuit for receiving signals from the sensors and deciding whether the bill is genuine or false; and a stacker for storing bills which are decided genuine by the discriminating circuit and forwarded by the conveyer.
During transportation of the bill toward the outlet by the conveyer, the sensors detect optical or magnetic features of the bill and forward outputs to the discriminating circuit which then compares the detected optical or magnetic features with predetermined patterns stored in the validator. When they are coincident, the discriminating circuit decides that the bill is genuine, and subsequently the bill is continuously transported by the conveyer through the outlet to the stacker. Adversely, when they are incoincident, the bill is returned to the inlet by driving the conveyer in the reverse direction.
A current bill validator utilizes a discriminating circuit of a microcomputer which includes software control program for effectively validating genuine or false bill according to the electric signals from the sensors. The microcomputer also contains software control program for controlling drive of the conveyer to decide whether the bill is transported to the stacker or returned to the inlet. The software control program also controls a stacking operation of the genuine bill in the stacker.
To install the software control program in the microcomputer of the bill validator, it is connected with an external computer such as a personal computer including necessary software control program. Then, the bill validator is switched to a slave mode, and an operating program is carried out in the external computer switched to a master mode. Subsequently, an indication "DOWNLOADING" is selected from menu on display of the external computer so that files of the control program are electrically forwarded to and installed in the bill validator. After the installation of the control program, the bill validator is electrically disconnected from the external computer, and then another bill validator is connected to the computer for next installation of the control program.
In this way, the prior art installing operation for writing software control program in bill validators requires a specified personal computer or dedicated hardware for downloading. Also, when software control program are updated or upgraded in bill validators of the field, a plurality of personal computers must be prepared and transported to the field, thereby resulting in troublesome downloading operation. Alternatively, it is possible to write new control program for bill validation in a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory) which is then substituted for old one in a bill validator. However, in this case, the old ROM must be removed from a printed board of the bill validator to exchange the old ROM for new one which then must be mounted on the printed board. This operation is complicated and time-consuming. Moreover, in some cases, a new ROM is irretrievably broken down because it is electrically or mechanically damaged by contact with a some object during this operation.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for download of a validator and a bill validator which can easily perform download operation of updating software control program in a writable memory for update.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method for download of a bill validator and a bill validator capable of updating software control program without any specified personal computer or dedicated hardware for download.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method for download of a bill validator and a bill validator used for master-slave system for download of software control program to be installed therein.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method for download of a bill validator and a bill validator which can easily be converted into a master.